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Show st&gescreenMdio By VIRGINIA VALIi (Releused by Western Newspaper Union. AT LAST moviedom's fa-- fa-- vorite word, "colossal," can really be applied to a motion mo-tion picture, "Land of Liberty." Liber-ty." It was more than a quarter century in the making, mak-ing, cost incalculable millions, mil-lions, and boasts a cast of more than 30,000, headed by dozens of top-flight stars. Cecil De Mille assembled it. It's an all-industry picture. It was assembled from scenes of 112 feature pictures, dozens of news reels, shorts and documentary films, dating from the present day back before "The Birth of a Nation." Spectacles include practically every ev-ery great moment in our history, from the battles of Bunker Hill and Lexington, of the Alamo and Gettys-b Gettys-b g, to the beginning of World War No. 2. Some of the "matching" of scenes from different pictures Is remarkable. remark-able. One Instance covers a mine disaster, the first part of which was taken from De Mille's "Dynamite," produced In 1929, and the second part from a news reel shot of an actual event, taken In 1937. This Is a stirring document, as well as a great human one, far more Important than a mere motion picture. pic-ture. The producers receive no revenue from "Land of Liberty" rental receipts beyond cost of distribution dis-tribution will be devoted to war emergency welfare work. Jane Russell, the new Howard Hughes discovery who will make her movie debut In his "The Outlaw." has been chosen "The Girl of the Year" by the Sigma Phi Epsilon - . . v -vv? - : ; '. a-: i !: '' ; . - JANE RUSSELL chapter at Duke university. Certainly Cer-tainly not because she's described by the old song, "Five feet two, with eyes of blue," either. She's five feet seven, weighs 122 pounds, and has brown eyes and hair. The men of Sigma Phi Epsilon like the fact that she has "enough meat on her bones to make a bathing suit justify its existence, obtainable only by ordering flapjacks and sausage instead of lettuce-and-tomato sandwiches sand-wiches when on dates with fraternity frater-nity men." Says Jane, as comment on that "And do I eat like a horse!" Mickey Rooney pushed war news off page one of the London Daily Mirror recently, when it was announced an-nounced that as the result of a poll of 4,000 British cinemas motion picture pic-ture theaters, to us he was the top box-office star of 1940. He also won top honors in the recent annual poll of American exhibitors. Stirling Hayden is headed straight for the top, if Paramount executives know anything about what makes a movie star. He's slated for a top role in "Dildo Cay," opposite Dorothy Doro-thy Lamour; he'U play the rich young owner of an island In the Caribbean who's regenerated by his overseer's daughter. And a year ago Hayden never dreamed of having hav-ing a movie career! Greer Garson stars her second year in pictures in this country with a new Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract con-tract and the outstanding role of her career. In "Blossoms in the Dust" we'll see the full beauty of her red hair and green eyes. The picture is based on incidents in the life of Mrs. Edna Gladney, famous Texas humanitarian who has devoted her life to child welfare. Johannes Steel of the Mutual chain is probably the only radio newsman in America with a price on his head and a prison cell yawning for him should he ever be caught in Germany. Ger-many. Son of a Prussian officer father fa-ther and a Scotch mother, he was born in Heidelberg, and held many an important position. Not in favor of Hitler, he spent nine days in a Nazi prison, escaped, and finally reached this country, where he became be-came an American citizen. ODDS AND ENDS Hedy LaMarr rates good parts after the way she comes to life in "Madame X" . . . Joan Crawford broke 1 mirrors the other day and didnyt bat an eye; it ivas just part of the day's work. She finished the scene, went to her dressing dress-ing room and broke her hand mirror. "And Lady Luck can chalk that one up against me.'" she wailed . . . Columbia Colum-bia Pictures has signed CBS news reporters re-porters Linton Wells and William L. Slurcr to co-star with Dorothy Thompson Thomp-son and Wythe Williams in "What's the Shooting For?," first of an "International "Inter-national Forum" series. |